Much as I LOVE this time of year for its promise of a fresh start and the hopefulness of accomplishing some of those things on my ever growing list, I also find it hard to fight the feelings of regret about all the things I DIDN’T accomplish last year. No matter… I give it a few minutes and then move on. 2015 was wonderful in so many ways with lots to be grateful for. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was releasing our 8th CD “Searching for Neverland”. We’ve been really happy with the response – most notably this review in No Depression – and it feels great to get those songs imprinted in their current form. We’ve also been writing a TON and promise it won’t be quite so long before the next CD. Anyway, on with the recap. For the past 10 years we’ve been kicking off the new year with our annual Yellow Room Gang concert at The Ark. Last year we celebrated 1o years by releasing the 4th gang CD aptly titled “Decade” and it features this great song from Jim Bizer!

Rod and I spent much of the previous two years down-sizing from our home in Chelsea, to a small townhouse back in Ann Arbor only to find ourselves a year later back in Chelsea, where we Continue reading →

PublishedNovember 27, 2015

Another one of the songs originally from our “Take Me To The Fair” EP, “Pretty Memories” is littered with metaphor and simile. It’s about moving on after the end of a seemingly brief relationship. It kicks off by likening the romance to a summer storm and a traveling circus that only sticks around long enough to bring a little larger-than-life joy to our narrator before packing up and moving on.

Love hit hard like a late summer storm sudden and furious then it’s all over The wind took north, the sun hopped a train The circus left town singing its final refrainContinue reading →

Join us for the last two Capps concerts of 2015!

This is a photo taken by Michael Hacala when we opened for Jill Jack a bunch of years ago (2008 maybe) at the Kensington Church concert series. Jason had only just started playing with us on a regular basis. “In This Town” was still new as were the few harmony parts we’d worked out. There were no big arrangements and that big ole Gibson guitar now belongs to Allison Downey. We’ve released two full-length CDs since then, “My Blue Garden” and “Searching for Neverland” along with the little interim EP “Take Me To The Fair” which are all three a culmination of the work we put into our songs and the contributions of the mega talented Jason Dennie. There are some new songs waiting in the wings and a few of them will be debuted at these two concerts. I never feel as though my songs are fully baked until Rod has filled in the missing ingredients and while I love a cake without any frosting, when Jason adds the icing, sprinkles and fancy decoration – that’s when they start to look and feel extra special. I hope you’ll join us and consider bringing a friend who is new to our music. We promise to give you our hearts! (DETAILS HERE)

Welcome to the first issue/episode of BTS (Behind the Songs). The idea of blogging about the songs on our new CD “Searching for Neverland” was not an original one. Far from it. I’ve seen this type of thing done by others – most recently Mary Gauthier – and it was her who inspired me. Plus, I thought it would be fun. Anyway, I’ll be trying to dig up early versions of the songs to share and do my best to be honest. I hope you enjoy.

BTS- Episode #1:Take Me To The Fair

It all started with a chord progression and a picking pattern… no words. I’d been pretty obsessed with this instrumental piece, playing it over and over every time I picked up my guitar … but no words. Then I caught wind of this interesting song challenge being promoted by a local music promoter named GW Staton. He provides a title and songwriters are challenged to write a song using that title. I was in a slump lyrically to be sure and not being one to write deliberately this was definitely a challenge. By way of example, I have attended Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters a number of times and John Lamb gives much more than just a title to work with but I still have yet to see one of those song assignments to its satisfactory completion. In any case, I am a bit foggy on how the words started to come. The title “Time Gone” conjured up mostly cliches for me …“let bygones be bygones” “where has the time gone?” “Holding on to time”… That sort of thing. I don’t like jumping on the obvious, whether it be a rhyme or a thought but ultimately the theme of ‘letting go’ kinda took over, and I let go of the worry about cliche and put ‘em all in the song.

Found myself looking back at some old ‘blog’ posts that never made it to this newer version of our website and this one struck me as worth re-sharing. (I admit to having fixed more than a few typos)

January 12, 2008

I found a sweet old book at our local antique store a long time ago, and bought it not for its contents but for the way it would look on my shelf. What can I say, i’m a visual person first. Anyway, the other day something prompted me to open it up and read it. Its a book called “Sesame and Lilies” Three lectures by John Ruskin, LL.D. The “revised and enlarged edition” is 4 inches tall with minuscule type… Near as I can tell it was revised in 1871. In reading the first essay I initially found myself simply enjoying the old language. Very soon, however, what he was saying started to resonate…in a big way. Continue reading →